Declaration on the murder of 9 peasants in Colombia

Declaration on the murder of 9 peasants in Colombia

09 October 2017

The Party of the European Left (EL) denounces and demands justice for the murder of 15 peasants and several wounded by colombian police in the southwestern municipality of Tumaco. In the EL we know that what happened is not an isolated event, since the violence and extermination of peasants and their leaders already seems to be part of an agenda that includes the commitment to comply with the agreement in point 4 of the Peace Accords of Havana. To date, no Rural Reform legislation has been enacted and no laws have been established to implement the Comprehensive National Program for the Substitution of Crops for Illicit Use (PNIS) It is unacceptable the situation of poverty and discrimination in which the peasants, who, defending their only means of subsistence and without prospects for the implementation of PNIS, are now victims of violence by the military and paramilitary forces. The EL echoes the demand of the Association of Community Action Boards of the rivers Mira Nulpe and Mataje (ASOMINUMA) to the Army and the National Police to respond for excessive, disproportionate and unnecessary use of force. It should be noted that the Prosecutor's Office reported that some of the victims were shot in the head, which is conclusive evidence of what ASOMINUMA reports. All this corroborates the suspicion that the Colombian Government systematically and intentionally violates the Habana Agreements. Something that, if so, is an act of irresponsibility and violence against a People who wants to follow the path of Peace, Dialogue and Social Equality.